Womens 3 Vs Cambridge Nomads 2

A well paced, well matched game for the St Neots Ladies 3s against a strong, young Cambridge Nomads Ladies 2 resulted in a 1-1 draw at home, with Player of the Match 13-year-old Ella Roberts scoring the Saints' goal.

A few player changes to last week's game, with the 3s welcoming back Hannah Thompson, China Forsdick, Kirsty Clarke and Sarah Leyshon and drawing up on the expertise of Bridget Bickley, Cerys James, Louise Abell and Ella from the lower teams. The game settled quickly into a fast pace with Nomads making the Saints Ladies work hard to keep up with the pace. But the home team pushed first with Ella going for a run into the D, passing onto Hannah for a solid strike on goal that only just went wide. China kept up the pressure with a lovely reverse stick strike outside the D, picked up by defender Sarah who had pushed high for an opportunity on goal that was saved and sent away by the Nomads defence. A short corner to St Neots saw a shot on goal from Claire Cooper, working hard in centre midfield throughout the game, that Ella only just missed off the post.
Nomads retaliated, with their no 8 forcing the Saints defenders to keep their wits in defending their goal. Rosy Sabatino's reflexes saved a shot directly in front of the goal on more than one occasion, with goalkeeper Tara battling for the ball at her feet against several Nomads players, supported by Andrea Pybus and Karen Sutton in a tense five minutes before the half time whistle.

Ella began in the second half with her first goal for the Ladies 3s after a short corner battle with the away defence. Nomads fought back strongly and kept up the attack on the Saints midfield and defence who worked hard to keep up. Recognising a tendency to crowd the centre of the pitch midfielders Hannah, Claire and Cerys pulled the ball out to the edges with forwards China, Kirsty and Bridget taking turns to stay high and draw the Nomad defence back deep into their half. Sweeper Sarah continued with her single runs, blasting through the Nomads midfield to take the ball to her forwards. But Nomads still caused problems for the St Neots defenders and goalie in the closing minutes of the game. Keeper Tara seemed to pull through plenty of one-to-one battles until the 30th minute when Nomads finally slotted one past her. St Neots battened down in defence to hold off a final onslaught from Nomads with a desperate save from Karen Sutton keeping the score at 1-1 at the final whistle.